Would I qualify for SMP? New business, one tax return

[Sparklythings1]

I started up a new business at Christmas 2021, my first tax return will be in April 2023 for the 2021-22 year so it will just be 4/5 months of earnings, til the April of 2022. I am currently working part time elsewhere but absolutely hate my job. If I was to have another baby next summer and quit my part time job now, would I get any SMP or do you have to be self-employed for X amount of time? I wouldn’t need to take too long off as it’s easy to do around a baby but obviously don’t want to shoot myself in the foot and end up with nothing for a month or two 🙄 thanks!

If you're self employed it would be maternity allowance you would claim. To get SMP from your paid job you'd need to still be working for them in the 25th week of pregnancy.

This is the eligibility criteria for maternity allowance if you were only working on a self employed basis:

Eligibility
You can get Maternity Allowance for 39 weeks if in the 66 weeks before your baby’s due, you’ve been:

• employed or registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks
• earning (or classed as earning) £30 a week or more in at least 13 weeks - the weeks do not have to be together

You may still qualify if you’ve recently stopped working. It does not matter if you had different jobs or periods of unemployment.

www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

@dementedpixie thanks! It sounds like I would most likely get something then. I would only aim to take 2 months completely off I think

Keep the part time job. Start paying yourself from your business through paye the minimum required to be eligible.

Then you will get SMP not once, but twice.